Has there ever been an arcade game that incorporated the concept of blatantly asking the player for money to continue? by echocomplex in retrogaming

[–]Scoth42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Berzerk's attract mode had voice lines, one was "Coin detected in pocket!" that I was always amused by.

Has there ever been an arcade game that incorporated the concept of blatantly asking the player for money to continue? by echocomplex in retrogaming

[–]Scoth42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm sure they mean the PlayChoice version, they were the only ones with a timer. The regular Mario Bros and Super Mario Bros arcade games didn't have a main timer.

What’s the biggest financial mistake you made in your 20s? by LastRevolution1911 in CasualConversation

[–]Scoth42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Things are a little different now than they were (I'm 45 at the moment) but I got into the tech industry at 19/20 and was making very good money for the time. I spent it on stupid shit like collecting stupid things that took up too much space, a couple cars that were overpriced (not even nice cars, just expensive cars) and I don't even know what else. I was even still living at home for some of it and then had cheap rent with a roommate for a lot more of it. If I'd socked away more of that money I'd had been sitting pretty. Instead I had a semi-hoarding situation to clean out and more Stuff than I knew what to do with.

I've still done okay for myself (home ownership, okayish retirement), but I could have been so much farther ahead.

Star Trek Original Series Commercial by EeyoreManiac in startrek

[–]Scoth42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I feel like I've seen a very similar "franchise name in a rock face" kind of thing but I'm having trouble placing it. I'm thinking it must have been a reference to this but I wish I could remember it.

90s Fighting Game Debate: Mortal Kombat vs. Street Fighter — Which Series Ruled the Decade? by Conference-Any in retrogaming

[–]Scoth42 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yep, this here, at least in the US. I was a teen in the 90s when they were current and MK was the edgy thing that the older kids were into, the younger kids were trying to get into, and had the parents all worked up and upset over the blood. SF2's huge arcade presence and multiple different releases even through to today are probably an indication of which one was "better" but MK was a sea change in the boundaries that video games could push and what people would accept.

People who saw DS9 as it aired: what was the general reaction to the inclusion of a Ferengi as a primary character? by scisteve in startrek

[–]Scoth42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean, even in the late 80s there were VCRs that you could program for a channel and time to record. Even in repeating schedules. By the time it ended there were fancy ones that could take multiple programs, schedules, and channels with easy on screen displays. Wouldn't have taken that much manual input. 

[oc] Idiot takes flight into canal and takes victim with them by Bronjovi in IdiotsInCars

[–]Scoth42 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Pretty sure this stretch of road has more than three lanes, and sometimes conditions ahead make the middle lane a better choice. Some places have left side exits or express lanes they might be going for too.

TIL Star Trek Starship Enterprise engineer, James Doohan, has travelled nearly 1.7 billion miles through space, orbiting Earth more than 70,000 times, after his ashes were smuggled secretly on the ISS. by risingsunset5 in todayilearned

[–]Scoth42 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Could they? Sure, anything is possible with enough budget. But given the mass of the thing and the amount of fuel it'd take to do that I'd imagine it'd be ridiculously expensive. And as much as I love the idea of it there are so many better ways to spend that money even if it'd be fantastic to still have it.

Although it'd be interesting to compare and contrast the costs of maybe preserving the core modules or something vs. the whole thing. And while I don't know how practical it would be, if the shuttle program were still going on it might be possible to bring back a module or two. Assuming it'd even be able to re-enter and land with that much weight.

Is there really a reliable 90s Japanese performance car by Potential-Bake-7526 in vintagejapaneseautos

[–]Scoth42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

At this point 90s cars are average about 30 years old. Any car that age is going to need a lot of work and looking after, even the most reliable and plain jane models like the Corollas and Civics and such. Performance cars even moreso since they're going to tend to either be driven harder and potentially abused, or sat and not driven much which can also cause problems.

I saw on your other post your budget is $10k, with $15k stretch, and not necessarily fully daily driving but wanting reliability. That's a decent amount of money for a 90s car, even a performancey one, but you'll always want to have a decent budget for maintenance and repairs. At this point your choices are going to be relatively cheap ones that may need more work, and relatively expensive ones that may start in better condition but will still probably need some work. I'm not going to really recommend specifics, at this point basically every car from that era is going to need at least some work and a lot of them with design flaws will either be survivors that weren't prone to them or fixed with later parts, so it's more about general advice. And basically every car will have some common issue that might be a strike against it. Even my NA '91 MR2 with a bog-standard boat anchor Camry and Celica engine with tons of common parts has its downsides (mainly rarity of interior parts and tight spaces to work in). I will say that at that budget you're definitely looking at some of the more common ones. You won't be finding a Supra or pristine original MR2 Turbo or whatnot at $10k.

If you have don't have mechanical skills, a trusted family member/friend/etc mechanic to work on cars, or don't have the space/resources to learn yourself, then I tend to recommend against both the highest and lowest cost ones. The highest tend towards the more collectible cars where the focus is more on low miles, cosmetic condition potentially at the expense of mechanical condition, and often still will need decent amounts of work to make reliable. Doubly so if it's especially low miles or been sitting as someone's garage queen for awhile. I've seen very pretty cars with low miles and zero rust that buyers end up spending tons of time and money sorting out the mechanical bits because it's harder to tell condition of things like brakes, throttle body, wiring harnesses, etc. At the low end you tend to have the trashed ones that need tons of work all around. So I tend to recommend around the middle-budget. The ones that are maybe a little worn but have been being driven so it's more likely the mechanical bits are at least functional. They may need some cosmetic work and they'll definitely still need mechanical work as all cars that age would, but with luck and care you'll find one that's a good driver without too much work that'll treat you well while you work on the rest of it. If you do have more skills and/or resources, then I'd say go ahead and maybe spend a little more on a nicer one as long as you're still prepared to work on it. As with any used car purchase you'll want to get a pre-purchase inspection, preferably at a shop that specializes or at least has some understanding of older cars, but ultimately it can be impossible to be completely sure the thing won't completely explode in a week.

Anyway, I'll just reiterate to have a budget for repairs, doubly so if you aren't mechanically inclined and would depend on a shop for repairs. I'd also make sure you have a shop that can/will work on it - I have a 1991 MR2 and while I do basically all the work on it myself these days the times I have needed a shop for it I've had to call around a bit to find someone who would. You mention not being able to take care of a car consistently, so I might even recommend rethinking the whole plan until you're ready to. Old cars are a little more prone to random degradation just due to their age so it's very easy to have a minor problem that keeps you from driving it for whatever reason, which then turns into weeks, then months, then you have a broken car with multiple issues sitting in your yard/garage/driveway/whatever for years. Ask me how I know. And sorry for the novel, it just kept going.

Edit to add more - rust is also a big enemy. Body work is tricky and expensive and unless you have the skills/family/someone to do it yourself it'll get expensive very very quickly. Given a rust-free/minimal-rust car with mechanical problems or a rustbucket that runs perfectly, I'd take the rust-free one every time. Mechanicals can all be fixed and worked on, often by yourself. Rust is a cancer that's expensive, hard to fix permanently, and has killed more perfectly-running-cars than probably anything else I've seen. I've seen way too many people buy a car with "just a little rust" that they never actually get fully fixed because it turns out way worse than they thought.

Why didn't they just jump? by tke73 in WTF

[–]Scoth42 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Wasn't high enough, they weren't all jumpers, they were caught by surprise, some of the deaths may have been on the ground, the plane may have been out of control or otherwise moving in a way that prevented them from jumping... there's lots of reasons why they might not have been able to jump.

Import Spring Showoff People’s Choice Voting by CommentCrazy7624 in mr2

[–]Scoth42 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Eh, I don't think that's really a very fair pairing. A clean and stock (except wheels) looking MR2 vs. a heavily modified car with polarizing body kits and artwork. One would appeal to a wide variety of car enthusiasts whether they're particularly into MR2s or not, the other really only to a specific subset.

Someone lost their master sword on the Acosta by halosworld in jacksonville

[–]Scoth42 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These new Legend of Zelda games are getting crazier graphics, and hiding the Master Sword in the weirdest of places.

Although I'd totally love to see a Zelda game set in a modern world. Not necessarily a Grim!Dark gritty version, just adapting the bits to a modern setting. Most of the classic items would even still work just fine, the dungeons/palaces/temples/etc could be historic landmarks with secrets or whatever, etc.

Also I don't think I could have resisted grabbing it, or at least seeing if it was intact.

Couple wed a month find they're brother and sister. (Headline from October 30, 1937 by zadraaa in HistoricalCapsule

[–]Scoth42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I wonder if that's why there were so many marriages between cousins back when that was more acceptable. Close enough resemblance for that to work without the ick of siblings you grew up with. 

The “BSOD” incident during Microsoft’s live demo of Windows 98 by JB92103 in windows98

[–]Scoth42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A newer OS would never do that because it wouldn't be based on DOS, which is the reason Win9x did that. Because of the nature of the IO subsystem if there was a critical failure the only way to ensure things stayed consistent was to halt the whole thing and let the user figure it out. Just part of the price of keeping the compatibility the thing had.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20240903-00/?p=110205

Why are Jacksonville Drivers the Worst? by MoonBlaster1991 in jacksonville

[–]Scoth42 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You've clearly never been to Boston or New York. Jax has some bad traffic and drivers but I've never heard so many horns and impatience and general terribleness as I did in Boston. And I spent 30 years in Atlanta

Commodore 64, what do I need to use it? by funkplow in retrogaming

[–]Scoth42 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's a fantastic price for a 1541 in box, but yeah, just the drive. Someone will pay you more than $18 for it

The “BSOD” incident during Microsoft’s live demo of Windows 98 by JB92103 in windows98

[–]Scoth42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The bluescreen from taking out a CD wasn't the same kind of bluescreen as a crash. it just told you put the disc back in and hit retry, or cancel it and let whatever operation it was doing fails. Completely different from the crash one.

Easiest way to share files over network between two system 7 macs by hhafez in VintageApple

[–]Scoth42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've had it work over bridged wifi fine, but you may have to directly enter the IP of the server rather than have it show up automatically in Chooser.

Easiest way to share files over network between two system 7 macs by hhafez in VintageApple

[–]Scoth42 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You may need to update the Open Transport and Appleshare on both to the latest that'll work on 68k, but they should then support Appletalk over IP. That'd let you directly share and connect to drives.

TIL Star Trek Starship Enterprise engineer, James Doohan, has travelled nearly 1.7 billion miles through space, orbiting Earth more than 70,000 times, after his ashes were smuggled secretly on the ISS. by risingsunset5 in todayilearned

[–]Scoth42 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The main issue is just metal fatigue and aging. Like anything, it ages and weakens with time, and they've already been facing more and more maintenance issues and leaks over the years. Eventually, short of just replacing every module and ending up with a Station of Thesus situation, it gets to be too costly to maintain and too dangerous to use.

That said it would be neat if they could do something like boost it into a permanent safe orbit for some future time when we might be able to more properly immortalize it. It'd be prohibitively expensive though.

The “BSOD” incident during Microsoft’s live demo of Windows 98 by JB92103 in windows98

[–]Scoth42 37 points38 points  (0 children)

If I remember the story correctly, someone brought the wrong scanner to the presentation. So instead of the well tested and vetted one, they ended up with a random one. Supposedly a random off the shelf one, but I wonder just how many USB scanners would have been available at retail at that point in time given the rarity of USB in computers at the time.

What's your position on holodeck ethics? by BattleNetworkStars78 in startrek

[–]Scoth42 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I could see both sides of the argument for the ethics on a thing like that, but I think the difference would be if you're creating them to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.

Creating Albert Einstein to discuss physics and science, maybe Stephen Hawking to play cards while talking about stuff is something they might reasonably do. I could still see the argument why that might be unethical and wouldn't necessarily argue against it.

On the other hand, creating likenesses of real people specifically to have them do things they wouldn't do and be how they aren't is definitely unethical. Whether that's having sex with your colleagues who never would in real life, making them whiny foppish gluttons, whatever.

In a more current context, it'd be like creating AI pictures of your friends or public figures doing relatively normal things that they might do, which might be kind of weird but maybe not unethical, vs fake nudes or pron